This invention relates to meters for measuring electrical energy consumption, such as are used for example by consumers connected to an electrical power supply network.
It is the common practice at the present time to employ electromechanical kilowatt-hour meters which integrate the product of the magnitudes of the voltage and current and record, usually by means of pointers on dials, the energy consumption in kilowatt-hours. For consumers who are given credit, the meters have to be read periodically to initiate a billing operation for charging the consumer. In other circumstances, prepayment is required by means of a coin-operated mechanism or possibly a mechanism operated by tokens which have to be purchased in advance.